HST Separation from Shuttle Columbia

The Hubble Space Telescope, sporting new rigid solar arrays and other new hardware, begins its separation from the Space Shuttle Columbia. The STS-109 crew deployed the telescope back into space at 4:04 a.m. CST on March 9, 2002. Afterward, the seven crew members began to focus their attention on their trip home, scheduled for March 12. The STS-109 astronauts had conducted five spacewalks to service and upgrade Hubble.